A helicopter providing aerial news coverage for NBC Los Angeles crashed Tuesday evening in the Chatsworth neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley while reporting on an earlier fatal bus collision, killing the two crew members on board and one person on the ground, according to the station and local officials.
The aircraft, operated by Angel City Air and known on air as NewsChopper 4, went down shortly before 7 p.m. near a self-storage facility parking lot, NBC Los Angeles reported. The station identified the victims aboard as aerial photojournalist Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw, both Angel City Air employees.
Anchor Colleen Williams confirmed the loss on air as the station's evening broadcast unfolded. "We knew it was a news chopper, we knew we'd lost contact with our people out there, and we've just received the confirmation that, in fact, NewsChopper 4 went down just before 7 o'clock tonight in Chatsworth," Williams said, her voice breaking. "We're going to take a couple of minutes to think about that, to process and to regroup."
L.A. Fire Battalion Chief Rico A. Gross said three people were confirmed dead at the scene and two others were hospitalized; their conditions were not immediately available. Fire Capt. Branden Silverman said one of the deceased appeared to be a pedestrian struck on the ground when the helicopter came down. Arriving crews found the wreckage engulfed in flames that had spread to parked vehicles nearby, he added.
The crash occurred roughly two hours after a Los Angeles Metro bus and a passenger vehicle collided on Nordhoff Street at 5:03 p.m., a separate incident that killed two people and injured others. Firefighters had been working to extricate trapped occupants and triage bus passengers when the helicopter — one of several aircraft covering the scene — went down.
Witness Zareh Sevanesian described the chopper's erratic final moments from his car. "As we were driving, I looked over to my left. I saw the helicopter — something didn't look right. And I told my wife, 'That helicopter is not flying right,'" he told NBC's "TODAY" show. He said the aircraft swayed and steadily lost altitude before impact. After pulling over, he encountered one person down near the wreckage and three others "screaming uncontrollably," calling the resulting fire "one of the most violent fires I had ever seen."
Moreno, a native of Orange County, graduated from Chapman University in 2010 with degrees in broadcast journalism and political science, the station reported. She joined Angel City Air's helicopter team that same year and had reported for multiple Southern California outlets, becoming a familiar presence for viewers of NBC4 and its Spanish-language sister station, Telemundo 52. Marciniw grew up in Southern California and graduated from Burbank High School, according to the station.
NBC Los Angeles and Telemundo 52 issued a joint statement mourning the loss. "We are deeply saddened to share that a helicopter providing aerial news coverage for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 was involved in a fatal accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening," the stations said. "We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who lost their lives."
The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating the crash of a Eurocopter AS 350 B2 helicopter and expected investigators on scene Wednesday morning. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed it would assist in the probe, which the NTSB will lead.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, speaking near the scene, called it "a heartbreaking night for our city" and praised first responders. "We lost five Angelenos today, and my heart certainly goes out to the family and friends of all of those that we lost," she said. Gov. Gavin Newsom also thanked emergency crews and offered condolences on X, saying, "Our hearts are with the victims and families of tonight's devastating Metro bus and helicopter crashes in Chatsworth, and with the entire NBC4 family."
Why this matters
Tuesday's sequence — a fatal ground collision followed hours later by the downing of an aircraft sent to document it — marks one of the deadliest single-day tolls for local newsgathering in recent Los Angeles memory. Helicopter reporting remains a defining feature of Southern California broadcast journalism, prized for its speed in a region prone to fires, freeway closures and high-profile pursuits. But the crash renews long-standing questions about the risk embedded in that model, particularly when multiple aircraft converge on the same breaking-news scene. The NTSB's findings will carry weight well beyond Los Angeles, where stations across the country rely on similar airborne coverage arrangements.
What's next
Investigators are expected to spend days at the Chatsworth site, examining the wreckage and the helicopter's flight path. Both NBC4 and Telemundo 52 continued their coverage Wednesday with remembrances of Moreno and Marciniw, whose colleagues described them as devoted to the craft of breaking news. The station has not announced plans for a memorial.
